Neither young people, nor unemployed, nor dangerous, nor news. A sociological critique of the concept of “young NEET” around the cases of Spain, Mexico and Argentina

Abstract

The notion of NEET classifies young people who are not in employment or education. This article discusses a series of research on the subject and explores some points of continuity between its analyzes. This text aims to discuss with empirical evidence the non-critical assumptions of the NEET category to reinsert the problematic in the relation between the young people and the wider crystallization of multidimensional processes of production and reproduction of the inequalities. With this aim the article analyzes the main debates about the measurements and the fundamental interpretative hypotheses based on a series of antecedent research and puts in relation the analysis of NEET with the dynamics of the labor market based on statistical data of Spain, Mexico and Argentina. The text concludes by identifying challenges for intervention policies on the issue.